Donge oil port blocked by strikers evacuated by police

The situation is tense in the Donge, in the Loire-Atlantique. The police intervened on the night of Monday to Tuesday to unblock the oil terminal, occupied by the strikers for a week.

The oil port was evacuated in less than two hours to facilitate the unloading of a diesel shipment, a CGT source told AFP.

The mobile gendarmes began their intervention at about 2 am, the same source said. At dawn, they secured the area by extinguishing the fires lit by the demonstrators.

“We’re blocked next to him, we can’t get through”

According to the photographer, there were no more protesters at the scene around 4:30 am. A source close to the strikers, contacted by AFP before the end of the intervention, reported “clashes” during the night.

At around 2:05 a.m., the security forces “started attacking” the demonstrators “as soon as they arrived,” the source said. Around 4:30 a.m., a dozen law enforcement vans were visible at the scene, according to an AFP photographer.

Contacting AFP, the prefectural duty unit was unable to confirm whether there had been police intervention or the presence of casualties. The prefecture has scheduled a press briefing on the situation this morning.

“We are blocked next to him, we can’t get through,” a source close to the strikers told AFP, who mentioned the gendarmes setting up a “harrow”. “We should have 200-300 strikers. Donges has been blocked for a week now,” the source recalled.

Among the demonstrators who have occupied the site of the Donges refinery are refinery agents, dock workers or even employees of the Cordemais thermal power plant.